So I just got this new horse, Boston, who is 23 years old. The previous owners just had him out at pasture for a year & he never got attention to his hooves. Well, whenever we got him he had 3 shoes on a one off, the people didn't even check. So today we got his shoes taken off. And he doesn't have laminitis, but he did have a hoof wall disease. But the farrier managed to remove it, but even without the disease he still has terrible cracks.

There is nothing that you can do to reverse or heal a hoof crack. You will just have to be patient until they grow out. In the meantime be sure your horse is seen regularly by your farrier, who will keep your horse's hooves trimmed and balanced. Sometimes the farrier can make a groove above a crack to help keep it from spreading.

It sounds like your horse has white line disease. Again, regular trimming done by the farrier will help with this. After the farrier has trimmed your horse it can be a good idea to put some Thrushbuster or koppertox, or some other kind of hoof disinfectant on the freshly trimmed areas to help kill the bacteria that cause white line disease.

Agree mostly with HAMP, except that the horizontal or 'x' scoring above the crack is useless IMO & can sometimes do further damage. Also don't think rim shoes are the best for cracks, tho depending on their severity, the hoof wall may need to be braced.

Your horse needs to be kept well trimmed - meaning frequent enough good trims to maintain the form & function, rather than allowing the horse to become overgrown before trimming. He needs to have the infection treated effectively. Part of that may be digging it out as it sounds your farrier has done, but ongoing treatment as HAMP suggested is generally necessary. While heavy duty chemicals may be necessary to kill the disease in the first place, I think it's best to revert to something milder, such as t-tree oil, manuka, or such, to be used regularly until such time as the cracks grow out.

Diet/nutrition are also important factors in hoof health & good nutritional supplementation to balance his diet, keeping him from becoming overweight and feeding high fibre, low carb diet will go a long way.

With all of that attended to & given a few months(more or less), the cracks should grow out. Sending us some hoof pics & info on his management may get you some more specific advice.

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